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> the commercial desktop OS market is a duopoly No, it's not. I've been happily running Linux on my personal machines for more than two decades. > what about

by pdonis 2y ago

> the commercial desktop OS market is a duopoly No, it's not. I've been happily running Linux on my personal machines for more than two decades. > what about those who rely on software that is only available on Windows and macOS? Matlab is the software in question in this particular case, and as others have already posted, it runs on Linux. Even for particular software that might be Windows/Mac only, there are almost always functional equivalents that run on Linux. For example, OpenOffice (and later LibreOffice, which is what I run now) as an alternative to MS Office. I have had plenty of opportunity for comparison because, for all the time I have been running Linux on my personal machines, I have had to use Windows at work. I have always had much more hassle with my work machines, and if I had a dollar for every time I have had the thought that, if only my employer would switch to Linux on desktops, my work life would be so much easier and my productivity would be better, I'd be retired now. And that's not even counting all the times I have had the thought that if my employer would run Linux on servers instead of Microsoft crapware, our IT infrastructure would be so much more robust. The one example I have seen in this discussion of software that is truly limited to Windows/Mac is Solidworks. But that's a particular product for a particular niche, not a general office application.

normalaccess 2y ago
I switched to Linux full time two years ago and I'm never looking back (until a "trusted" OS is required by law). There are times when I truly need windows for something so I keep it around on a spare HDD to boot into it. In the future I plan on relegating it to a VM on a separate VLAN to keep the cooties at bay.
- GuB-42 2y ago
  > There are times when I truly need windows for something so I keep it around on a spare HDD to boot into it. That's the problem. Most Linux users need Windows for something. I use mostly Linux, but I also have a Windows boot partition. For things like gaming, Fusion 360, VR,... Some things don't work that well on Linux: YouTube sometimes gets out of sync, print quality is really bad,... On the other hand, I don't really need Linux, except for jobs that involve Linux specifically, and these are pretty technical jobs, far from a typical use case for non tech workers. And even with such tech jobs, >90% of these cases could be dealt with with WSL. There is a video by LinuxTechTips where he tries to go 100% Linux, he is relatively successful but it is painful. I love this video because I think it is representative of the experience of a computer-savvy consumer. On the other hand, if auto-restarts are a real problem to you, you are probably not a typical user. For most, it is an annoyance, but not really a problem, and it can be important for security. I don't really mind them personally, except that my dual-boot machine restarts on Linux (the default) when Windows does that, with the update process paused half way, annoying.
- derekp7 2y ago
  I got my start in Unix sysadmin a few decades ago, so have always been comfortable in Linux even in the early days. I used to maintain a dual boot setup, but my primary system has been Fedora Linux only for the past decade or so. The laptop I use occasionally boots to Linux by default, but I keep the Windows partition around that it came with. Only time I boot into Windows is if I need to use the slicing software for my 3D printer (after I've created the model in Linux). In that case, didn't realize that Monoprice's rebranding of a popular 3D printer included a customized firmware signature and matching change in the slicer software, so I can't use the OEM manufacture's software (either Linux or Windows versions), and am stuck with whatever Monoprice wants to distribute. For work, my work laptop is Windows and provided/maintained by internal IT. I support exclusively Linux based systems for our customer facing product, and the main reason I keep the Windows install on is so I can make any workstation issues a helpdesk issue. In general though I've had no issues getting Office 365 working on Linux (Chromium / Chrome is best supported, but Firefox works OK too for most functions).
linguae 2y ago
I said commercial OS market to distinguish proprietary desktop operating systems (Windows and macOS) from Linux, the BSDs, MINIX, Haiku, Plan 9, OpenSolaris, FreeDOS, and other alternative operating systems. Windows and macOS is a duopoly, much like how US politics is functionally a two-party system. The existence of the Greens, Libertarians, and independent candidates don’t take away the fact that the Democrats and Republicans utterly dominate American politics to the point that third parties and independent candidates face major hurdles campaigning. Likewise, the existence of Linux doesn’t take away the fact that Windows and macOS combined dominate desktop computing. Sometimes one needs proprietary software packages that only work on Windows or macOS. Granted, the situation in 2024 isn’t as bad as it was in the 2000s thanks to the evolution of Web apps as an alternative to desktop applications. Still, some people rely on heavy-duty desktop apps that rely on Windows- or Mac-only APIs. The GIMP and Inkscape may not fully replace Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. FOSS diagramming tools, last I checked, aren’t at the level of proprietary tools that are unavailable for Linux like Microsoft Visio and OmniGraffle. Some people need functionality in Microsoft Office that is unavailable in LibreOffice.
chucklenorris 2y ago
I'm sorry but I can't run a laptop without functional hardware video decoding, or even hybrid sleep. I tried my Linux switch this year on 2 laptops - an older 8th gen with Intel graphics and a new one with the latest AMD. Still the same stuff. I need to do lots of workarounds for simple stuff to work properly and some things are just broken. I can't tolerate a laptop that eats 70% of CPU and murders the battery when I'm just trying to watch a video and crashes randomly when resuming for sleep. Windows 10 enterprise ltsc it is :(

by pdonis 2y ago

normalaccess 2y ago

I switched to Linux full time two years ago and I'm never looking back (until a "trusted" OS is required by law). There are times when I truly need windows for something so I keep it around on a spare HDD to boot into it. In the future I plan on relegating it to a VM on a separate VLAN to keep the cooties at bay.

GuB-42 2y ago
> There are times when I truly need windows for something so I keep it around on a spare HDD to boot into it. That's the problem. Most Linux users need Windows for something. I use mostly Linux, but I also have a Windows boot partition. For things like gaming, Fusion 360, VR,... Some things don't work that well on Linux: YouTube sometimes gets out of sync, print quality is really bad,... On the other hand, I don't really need Linux, except for jobs that involve Linux specifically, and these are pretty technical jobs, far from a typical use case for non tech workers. And even with such tech jobs, >90% of these cases could be dealt with with WSL. There is a video by LinuxTechTips where he tries to go 100% Linux, he is relatively successful but it is painful. I love this video because I think it is representative of the experience of a computer-savvy consumer. On the other hand, if auto-restarts are a real problem to you, you are probably not a typical user. For most, it is an annoyance, but not really a problem, and it can be important for security. I don't really mind them personally, except that my dual-boot machine restarts on Linux (the default) when Windows does that, with the update process paused half way, annoying.
derekp7 2y ago
I got my start in Unix sysadmin a few decades ago, so have always been comfortable in Linux even in the early days. I used to maintain a dual boot setup, but my primary system has been Fedora Linux only for the past decade or so. The laptop I use occasionally boots to Linux by default, but I keep the Windows partition around that it came with. Only time I boot into Windows is if I need to use the slicing software for my 3D printer (after I've created the model in Linux). In that case, didn't realize that Monoprice's rebranding of a popular 3D printer included a customized firmware signature and matching change in the slicer software, so I can't use the OEM manufacture's software (either Linux or Windows versions), and am stuck with whatever Monoprice wants to distribute. For work, my work laptop is Windows and provided/maintained by internal IT. I support exclusively Linux based systems for our customer facing product, and the main reason I keep the Windows install on is so I can make any workstation issues a helpdesk issue. In general though I've had no issues getting Office 365 working on Linux (Chromium / Chrome is best supported, but Firefox works OK too for most functions).

linguae 2y ago

I said commercial OS market to distinguish proprietary desktop operating systems (Windows and macOS) from Linux, the BSDs, MINIX, Haiku, Plan 9, OpenSolaris, FreeDOS, and other alternative operating systems. Windows and macOS is a duopoly, much like how US politics is functionally a two-party system. The existence of the Greens, Libertarians, and independent candidates don’t take away the fact that the Democrats and Republicans utterly dominate American politics to the point that third parties and independent candidates face major hurdles campaigning. Likewise, the existence of Linux doesn’t take away the fact that Windows and macOS combined dominate desktop computing. Sometimes one needs proprietary software packages that only work on Windows or macOS. Granted, the situation in 2024 isn’t as bad as it was in the 2000s thanks to the evolution of Web apps as an alternative to desktop applications. Still, some people rely on heavy-duty desktop apps that rely on Windows- or Mac-only APIs. The GIMP and Inkscape may not fully replace Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. FOSS diagramming tools, last I checked, aren’t at the level of proprietary tools that are unavailable for Linux like Microsoft Visio and OmniGraffle. Some people need functionality in Microsoft Office that is unavailable in LibreOffice.

chucklenorris 2y ago

I'm sorry but I can't run a laptop without functional hardware video decoding, or even hybrid sleep. I tried my Linux switch this year on 2 laptops - an older 8th gen with Intel graphics and a new one with the latest AMD. Still the same stuff. I need to do lots of workarounds for simple stuff to work properly and some things are just broken. I can't tolerate a laptop that eats 70% of CPU and murders the battery when I'm just trying to watch a video and crashes randomly when resuming for sleep. Windows 10 enterprise ltsc it is :(